Two US Navy personnel and a Philippine Marine soldier were killed when a land mine exploded along a road in Indanan, Sulu Tuesday morning, an official said.

Amid the strong winds and heavy downpour brought about by tropical storm “Ondoy”, residents of Barangay Putik found a dead newly born baby boy along a river at dawn last Saturday.

The Kapit-Bisig Laban Sa Kahirapan Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Services (KALAHI-CIDSS) yesterday disclosed that it is expecting some $244 million of additional financing from World Bank and Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) with counterparts from the national government in order to further enhance and sustain its many social services program, infrastructure projects, and poverty alleviation program in the various parts of the country.

District 2 Congressman Erbie A. Fabian has lined up several sports competitions to highlight  the celebration of Fiesta Pilar.

After the Commission on Election (Comelec) Zamboanga City Office announced the deadline of the registration of voters, Vice Mayor Mannix Dalipe yesterday encouraged qualified individuals, particularly the youth, to avail of the continuing registration of voters for them to be able to choose the best officials in 2010 election.

Mayor Celso Lobregat has allocated some P1.2 million in the city’s supplemental budget to partially subsidize the health insurance coverage of two organized groups with a total of 10,000 members.
The number of new enrolees is in addition to Lobregat’s expanded PHILHEALTH insurance program which is targeted to reach a total 14, 000 enrollees by the end of this year.

A Tawi-Tawi town mayor received his first prestigious award as one of the “2009 Ten Outstanding Public Servants” (TOPS) in the Automous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) during the 109th Anniversary of the Philippine Civil Service” coinciding with the 10th year anniversary celebrating CSC-ARMM and the “36th Kamahardikaan Sin Tawi-Tawi” (Anniversary Celebration) in Cotabato City yesterday.  

A carpenter died while his companion sustained minor injuries after they fell from a two storey house where they were working in Leon Postigo, Zamboanga del Norte last Sunday night.

The Bureau of Internal Revenue-9 Zamboanga City Revenue District Office under Roberto Bucoy is being eyed as one of the top revenue collection offices in the country for the first semester.
Bucoy’s office has collected revenue amounting to P 770,025,677.48 from January to July 2009, or P 56,176,677.48 higher than its ttarget goal of P 713,849,000. The collection of revenue of  the year 2008 from January to July was only P 721,681,265.72.

“The recent calamity brought by typhoon Ondoy was an extreme event not likely to happen again in our lifetimes.
“This, of course, is of little comfort to our countrymen who were ravaged by the storm, and who now need more than ever our time, our compassion, and our material support as they try to rebuild their lives.
“As my own small contribution to the common effort, I have ordered Malacanan Palace to be opened to the general public, effective immediately, as a center for relief and rescue operations, the receipt and distribution of charitable donations, and the temporary relocation of families who were displaced or made homeless by the storm.

The law provides that the nomination of candidates for the May, 2010 elections will start on October 21 and will end on November 19, the eve of the start of the filing of certificates of candidacy which commences on November 20 and will end at midnight of November 30. Sean Connery played a Russian submarine commander in the movie: “Hunt the Red October.” Twas a story of defection and betrayal to Russia ’s Motherland. Defection and betrayal. Those are the two things that will happen between now and  November 30.           

Because of the death of a friend, I found myself recently—all in one day—flying from Cebu to Manila, then driving for 3 hours from Manila to Lukban, a quaint small town perched at the foot of Mt. Banahaw, then saying the funeral Mass, going to the burial itself, mixing with the family of the deceased, then to Calamba for the night.
Deaths come unscheduled, and in this one, for some reason the burial also had to be done the day after. So my trip was a lightning-quick, drop-all affair. I was amazed to discover I managed and survived it all. That’s God’s grace for you.

Last Saturday, my parents and I were having a lazy afternoon when my brother, Tim, who works in Manila texted around 2 p.m. saying he was stranded near Roxas Boulevard. Typhoon Ondoy had struck, venting its wrath and fury upon Metro Manila and the neighboring areas, drastically altering the landscape of the affected areas, destroying everything in its path and leaving nothing but devastation and misery in its wake.

FILIPINOS MUST CLEAN UP THEIR OWN SINFUL “FILTH AND MUD”: Now that the floods have subsided and Metro Manilans and other Filipinos are trying to clean up their houses and surroundings covered with filth and mud, we must also endeavor to clean up ourselves with sinful filth and mud, learn to listen to, and obey, God’s Word and commands and decrees once again, to avert similar but more destructive tragedies in the future.